Browsing of hierarchically structured data on a computer system is currently realized through the use of tools allowing navigation through nested, hierarchical, tree-like structured lists of data items (e.g., storage repositories, network drives, folders, and/or files). The structure of current browsing tools requires increased vertical and/or horizontal scrolling motions as the number of the data items increase in the hierarchically structured data. Browsing for specific data items using current browsing tools is especially problematic on devices with limited display size, such as smart phones, PDAs, and mobile computers. Increased numbers of scrolling motions are also wasteful of time, repetitive, and cumbersome. Furthermore, the length of tree-like structured lists displayed by browsing tools often exceeds the dimensions of a physical display and, without scrolling, limits a user to a data view limited to the size of the physical display.